InBrief
Consultant sees salaries heading up
International human resources and finance consultant Watson Wyatt predicts Hong Kong's average salary increase rate for most industry sectors to be 4.3 per cent for next year. The finance sector is expected to experience an average salary increase rate of up to 5per cent. The forecasts are based on the group's 2007 Total Rewards Survey, which found that the actual average salary increase in Hong Kong was 3.6 per cent for this year - up from 3per cent last year and 2.2 per cent in 2005. This year's actual average increase came close to the forecast 3.8 per cent. The finance and engineering sectors are experiencing the strongest upward salary movement, while the transport, telecommunications and multi-industry sectors are experiencing less than average movement.
Americans face work problems because of arthritis
Nearly 12 per cent of Americans aged from 45 to 64 face work limitations due to arthritis, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. It was the CDC's first major evaluation on work limitations caused by arthritis. The CDC based the findings on a 2003 national survey of 264,684 adults in the US. Reuters quoted the report as stating that 6.7 per cent of people aged 18 to 64, including 11.7 per cent of those aged 45 to 64, said they either could not work or were limited in the amount and type of work they could perform due to arthritis. A third of working-age people who suffered from the illness said they had suffered work limitations. The forms of arthritis covered in the survey included rheumatoid, gout and lupus. According to the report, unemployment was higher among people who said arthritis limited what they could do in a job than the overall working population throughout the US.
